[photos] Boysetsfire at Brighton Music Hall | May 17, 2012

Boysetsfire made a stop at the Brighton Music Hall Thursday, May 17, during their ongoing reunion tour. They came out hard with a set consisting of their “hits” dating back to 1997’s The Day the Sun Went Out, through the scorned WindUp Records releases with spatterings of new extremely heavy material mixed in. They took jabs at other bands currently reuniting -- most notably Refused, who aren’t working on a new record but just riding the wave and collecting the cash. (They also accused them of being vampires and living off the blood of young Scandinavian boys, but fact-checking did not find confirmation of this.)

The half-capacity crowd was made up of thirty-somethings looking to relive the early 2000s that they spent at the Palladium Upstairs. They tried to bring the ruckus during the heaviest jams, but time had clearly taken its toll on their stamina -- and much the same could be said for Boysetsfire themselves. Although they hammered out 90 minutes of intense melodic hardcore and Gray’s voice remained pitch perfect, there were numerous verbal reminders from the band between songs that they’re pushing 40, and maintaining isn’t as easy as it used to be.

As they closed with “After the Eulogy” and “Rookie,” they gave the crowd what they were looking for, a reminder of what it was like way back when, before samplers and dubstep interludes invaded the scene. True to the way there were a decade ago, after the set the band hung out on the front of the stage engaging and now reminiscing with the fans, blurring the line between artist and audience.